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Although other predatory caterpillars have been discovered (ie:Harvester), this is a 1st for one to tie up it's prey like a spider...

Originally Posted by [b

Quote[/b] ]> Hawaiian caterpillars hunt like spiders -report
> Jul 22, 10:18 AM (ET) WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tiny, snail-eating
> caterpillars found in Hawaiian rain forests tie up their prey with
> sticky silk and snack on them at leisure, surprised scientists said on
> Thursday. It is the first time that caterpillars that eat snails or
> any other mollusk have been found, the researchers write in Friday's
> issue of the journal Science. And while caterpillars of all kinds spin
> silk to make cocoons, this is the first time one has been seen to use
> it as spiders do to capture prey. "Although all caterpillars have silk
> glands, this predatory caterpillar uses silk in a spiderlike fashion
> to capture and immobilize prey," Daniel Rubinoff and William Haines at
> University of Hawaii wrote in their report.
> The caterpillars of the newly described species, Hyposmocoma
> molluscivora, are small -- about a third of an inch (8 mm) long.
> Wrapped in their cocoons, they "lumber along" leaves, Rubinoff and
> Haines said. "The caterpillars do not eat plant foliage, even when
> starving," they wrote. Instead, they hunt Tornatellides snails. When
> they find one, "they immediately begin to spin silk webbing attaching
> the snail shell to the leaf on which it rests, apparently to prevent
> the snail from sealing itself against the leaf or dropping to the
> ground," the researchers wrote. "The larva (caterpillar) then wedges
> its case next to or inside the snail shell and stretches much of its
> body out of its silk case, pursuing the retreating snail to the end of
> the shell from which there is no escape. We observed 18 attacks by 10
> different larvae following this sequence." Sometimes the caterpillars
> decorate their silk casings with empty snail shells, probably as a
> form of camouflage, the researchers said. The caterpillars eventually
> become small moths. The researchers say they are surprised by the
> findings and note the caterpillars join a range of unusual Hawaiian
> fauna, including spiders that impale their prey in
> flight. "Caterpillars and terrestrial snails co-occur widely on all
> the continents where they are present, but only in Hawaii have
> caterpillars evolved to hunt snails," they wrote.